LogFAQs > #898522823

6. Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/182028/through-ages-new-story-civilization

Genre/mechanics: Card drafting, resource management, civilization-building, hand management, tableau-building, action-allocation
Rules complexity: 10/10
Game length: 2-5 hours
Player count: 2-4
Experience: 3+ plays with 2, 5+ plays with 2-4 (app, vs CPU)
First played: 2018

Through the Ages is a eurogame, abstracted civilization-simulator. The goal is to have the most Culture at the end of three Ages - which are represented by decks of cards. Gameplay is entirely driven by drafting and playing cards, and taking actions on your tableau. Your tableau generates Food (to feed your workers), Stone (to assign your workers and construct wonders), Science (to develop your tableau further), and Culture (VP). Your workers will also be assigned to Military, as Aggressions and Wars can punish weaker players.

Enjoyment - I've only played TtA in-person with the significant other. She decided of all games that this would be the game we'd get. It's fiddly and tedious and long and it's so damn satisfying that we each paid $10 to get the mobile app, which fully and wonderfully implements the entire game. Each time played, it's a set-aside-two-weeknight-evenings, or set-aside-the-afternoon activity. There's something inherently satisfying about seeing the empire you build from your cards and workers at the end of it all.

Design - TtA is intricate as fuck and I love it. There's so much in it that's well-balanced and well-thought-out. A New Story of Civilization is the completely revamped second edition of TtA, which primarily retains the original's cards and mechanics, but which simplifies a few things - so you know it's been play-tested really well.

There's so damn much constraining you each turn, and so much you want to achieve. You need Culture to win the game, but falling behind big in Military in the third age will almost surely lose you the game, since the War Over Culture war cards can be extremely punishing. So you've already got an inherent tension between producing Culture and building up your Military might. You're not getting far with either category if you don't upgrade your technology - an Age 1 soldier will provide you one unit of strength, but an Age 2 soldier will provide you two. So you'll need Science to develop those Cultural and Military technologies... and your Science production is also limited. To take advantage of these technologies, you'll need Workers, but raising a Worker requires an initial investment of Food (and the larger your workforce, the more food you eat per turn). On top of that, you need to pay Stone to assign those workers. So do you send your Workers to produce more Food so you can generate more Workers? Or more Stone, so those Workers can be assigned more easily? Or more Science, so you can develop better, more efficient technologies for your Workers? Or Culture, or Military?
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness